### 157

You watch the Chagarashi moving through the trees and tell your companions to remain as still as possible in the hope that it will not detect you. Unfortunately, the creature catches the scent of your horses and turns its feral gaze in your direction. Upon seeing you and your party it reacts in an instant. Swiftly, it turns about and lopes away through the trees in the direction of the roadblock.

‘I must stop it getting away,’ you shout to your companions. ‘If it makes it to the roadblock, we’ll soon have more than one of them to deal with.’

You spur your horse to the gallop and charge at the fleeing Chagarashi. The creature soon realises that it cannot outrun your horse and defiantly it skids to a halt and turns to face you. As your horse bears down on this snarling beast, you unsheathe your Kai Weapon and raise it in readiness to strike the creature a killing blow.

Chagarashi Scout: COMBAT SKILL 38 ENDURANCE 38

Due to the speed of your attack, you can only engage in one round of combat with this enemy before the momentum of your charging horse carries you past it.

If you kill the Chagarashi in this single round of combat, turn to 267.

If you do not kill the Chagarashi outright with your single blow and lose the same or fewer ENDURANCE points than the Chagarashi, turn to 142.

If you lose more ENDURANCE points than the Chagarashi in this single round of combat, turn to 88.